Bargains of Power and Protection

Frequently Asked Questions

Aspects

• What can the Intensify Aspect spend its Element markers on, aside from its Powers?
  Any other Spirit action that Shifting Memory of Ages is doing. However, almost all of the Spirit actions that the Intensify Aspect can usefully boost are either the use of one of their powers or a triggered action created by their powers (e.g., increasing the Damage from Vengeance of the Dead).

  They generally can't spend Element Markers to boost the Powers of other Spirits, even if those Powers involving Shifting Memory of Ages making choices, since using a Power is the action of the Spirit targeting the Power, not the Spirit being targeted.

  To cover some of the more unusual cases:

  • Intensify can spend Element markers on actions granted to it by other Spirits to use at a later point in the turn, like adding a Disease with Scream Disease Into the Wind or doing Damage with Gift of the Sparking Sky.
  • Intensify can spend a Fire marker on a Ritual of Destroying Flame.
  • Intensify can't spend Element markers on benefits that aren't actions, like the ongoing defense from Bargains of Power and Protection.

  Tags: Action Modifiers, Element markers, Triggered Actions, Scream Disease Into the Wind, 4 more...
• Can the Intensify Aspect strengthen a Bargain by spending Moon to Remove more Presence from the island? How about from a Presence track?
  No and no. The efficacy of a Bargain is based on the number of times it has been made, not the number of Presence it has removed, and Intensify can't increase the number of Presence removed from a Presence track.

  However, Intensify can strengthen Transformative Sacrifice by removing a 4th Presence from the island (in a land where the Power was already removing Presence) to take and play an additional card, since that power explicitly scales with the number of removed Presence.
  Tags: Bargain, Bargains of Power and Protection, Bargain of Coursing Paths, Transformative Sacrifice, 1 more...
• Can the Intensify Aspect spend Moon to increase the amount of [thing not on the island] removed by an Action?
  No, Intensify can only affect the number of pieces removed from the island by the Remove keyword. It has no effect on actions that remove pieces from other locations (e.g., removing Presence from Presence tracks with Bargains or Transformative Sacrifice ).
  Tags: Remove, Bargain, Transformative Sacrifice, Intensify Aspect (Shifting Memory of Ages), 2 more...

Effect Rules

• If a Dahan is not participating in Ravage, can it still grant Defend 1 in that Ravage from Bargains of Power and Protection or Canny Defense?
  No, if a piece is not participating in Ravage, it can’t grant Defend in that Ravage or count towards an effect that grants Defend in that Ravage. However, in the rare case that Invaders do Damage to the land or to the Dahan outside of a Ravage due to a Power or Event, the Dahan will grant Defend and reduce that Damage.

  This is only a problem for effects that apply to the entire island, and are thus rechecked every time they are relevant. Effects that check for or count Dahan in a single land lock in their Defend amount earlier in the turn.
  Tags: Do not participate in Ravage, Bargains of Power and Protection, Canny Defense, Coordinated Defense, 5 more...
• If an Incarna is removed from the game or put back into the box (e.g., by Transform to a Murderous Darkness), can it be added back into the game?
  No, it's no longer in the game. Permanently losing an Incarna this way generally isn't advisable.
  Tags: Bargain, Incarna, Bargains of Power and Protection, Transform to a Murderous Darkness, 1 more...

Power Cards

• Wait, is the target land of Bargains of Power and Protection relevant?
  None of the text effects affect the target land - but you do need to have a valid target land in order to enact the bargain.
  Tags: Bargains of Power and Protection
• How does Bargains of Power and Protection work if you use it multiple times?
  Additively. If you've set aside a total of 6 Presence, Dahan within Range 1 of your Presence provide Defend 6, and you gain 6 less Energy per turn.
  Tags: Bargain, Bargains of Power and Protection
• What sources of Energy gain do Bargains affect?
  All sources: Growth, Gain Energy, power effects, events, etc. It never actually takes away Energy you have banked, though.

  If you have trouble remembering to gain less Energy, covering up numbers on your Energy track can be an easy reminder.
  Tags: Energy, Bargain, Bargains of Power and Protection, Bargain of Coursing Paths, 0 more...
• What happens if you give a Range boost to someone who's used Bargains of Power and Protection? Does it matter if they played Bargains on that turn or an earlier turn?
  In either case, for the turn the Range boost is active, it increases the "within Range 1 of your Presence" at which that Spirit affects Dahan. The boost wears off at the end of the turn, even though Bargains of Power and Protection doesn't.

  This includes range bonuses to "your Power Card" (e.g., Volcano Looming High), but not bonuses specifically for targeting.

  If a Range boost only increases the Range for a single Action (e.g., the Reach Aspect ignoring Range), then the farther-afield Dahan only grant Defend for one action of your choice (usually a single Ravage in one land).
  Tags: Range, Range Boosts, Bargains of Power and Protection, Reaching Grasp, 7 more...
• What happens if you gift Bargains of Power and Protection to another Spirit, who uses it? Now that the Reminder Card is in front of them, do you still get the benefit?
  The permanent effects of the Bargain persist and are associated with you even if you don't have the Power Card any more.

  It doesn't matter who the Reminder Card is in front of; it's just a reminder. If table configuration allows, it is probably most convenient to put the Reminder Card between the players who have used the Power Card so that they can all easily reference it.

  For example, if two Spirits each use Bargains of Power and Protection once, both of those Spirits grant Defend 1 to each Dahan within Range 1; it doesn't matter which one more recently used the Power. If a single Dahan is within Range 1 of both Spirits, that Dahan will provide Defend 2, since the two Defend 1 effects stack.

  Similarly if you Forget the Power, you continue to get the benefits and pay the costs, even if another Spirit eventually gains and uses it.
  Tags: Reminder Cards, Bargain, Bargains of Power and Protection, Bargain of Coursing Paths, 1 more...
• Does the Energy Ocean’s Hungry Grasp gains from Drowning count as gaining Energy for the purpose of Bargains?
  Yes. Ocean doesn’t get to skip out of paying for its Bargains just because its main source of Energy isn’t one of the common sources.

  That being said, Ocean is not required to exchanged Drowned Invaders for Energy at a particular time, so it can save up Invaders on turns when it will not gain much Energy (avoiding fully paying for its Bargains on those turns) and then cash them out on a turn when it will gain a lot of Energy.
  Tags: Energy, Bargain, Drowning (Ocean's Hungry Grasp), Ocean's Hungry Grasp, 2 more...
• If you use Encompassing Ward ("Defend 2 in every land where Target Spirit has Presence"), then the target Spirit moves some of their Presence, does the Defend move/change?
  Changed answer: Yes. The Power modifies the target Spirit so it provides Defend 2 in any lands where it happens to have Presence at that moment.

  This is for consistency with other effects that alter an entire class of things, mostly on Fear Cards and Event Cards. Powers that affect a single land, or a land and its neighbors (e.g., Bloodwrack Plague; Prey On the Builders) – check state at the moment they resolve.

  This is entirely for ease of play. For a single-land effect, it's much easier to check prerequisites at the moment of resolution and not have to remember, e.g., "oh, I need to leave a Beasts in this land to cancel the Build". For widespread effects, it's much easier to remember a general rule like "Invaders skip actions in lands with 2 or more Dahan" than it is to note and remember every single land with 2 or more Dahan at that moment, and keep that memory until the Ravage happens.
  Tags: Defend, Changed rulings, Encompassing Ward, Bargains of Power and Protection, 2 more...

Presence and Sacred Sites

• What happens to Presence when it gets removed or replaced?
  It goes to the destroyed Presence pile in the supply unless the particular effect says to put it elsewhere. From there, it can be restored by any effect that returns destroyed Presence to the island.

  As of the release of Nature Incarnate, only four Presence-removing/replacing effects send the Presence somewhere special: "Transform to a Murderous Darkness," "Call Forth Predators" (Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves special rule), and both Bargains remove replaced Presence from the game. (Though Bargains put the Presence on reminder cards, this is just to help players track how many times they made the Bargain; Bargains scale with the number of times they are made, not the number of Presence on the reminder card.
  Tags: Replace, Presence, Remove, Bargain, 10 more...

Spirits and Innate Powers

• When Dances Up Earthquakes gains Energy directly onto impending cards, is that Energy decreased by Bargains or increased by Back Against the Wall?
  No, those effects modify the Energy gained into a Spirit's individual Energy stockpile, not the amount gained onto impending cards.
  Tags: Bargain, Energy, Bargains of Power and Protection, Back Against the Wall, 4 more...